We learned today that one of our directors, Mike Pfaiffer, has passed away. Michael was a programmer, editor of Call-A.P.P.L.E. and The Digital Civilization, as well as A.P.P.L.E. President. He passed away at his home in Manitoba Canada. Mike was a driving force behind the rejuvenation of A.P.P.L.E. in the early 2000’s and will be sorely missed by all of us.
Ewen Wannop has released an upgrade to his original ByteBagger hex editor program. It is now called ChewBagger and it is a stand-alone file viewer, editor and disassembler. ChewBagger lets you view the raw data of either the data or resource fork of a file, search for target strings within that fork, using either Hex or ASCII data, and optionally allows you to edit the data, and write the changed data back to the file. You can also load an OMF…
Today’s Mac GUI Vault update brings enhanced file catalogs to over 70% of the 27,000 files currently in the Vault archive; that’s almost 19,000 files. These file catalogs are in the search database too, so you can use them to find the programs that you’re looking for. Some files, such as BinHex and BinSCII, will often have a description of the program in them; this description has also been copied out and is searchable. The following file formats are cataloged:…
Changes Meter, the URL checker by Massimiliano Origgi and Intuiware, has been updated. The latest version for Mac OS X, 1.8.1, address a host of issues that users were having including: Performance and Stability Added option to toggle the ‘Check Complete’ Growl notification Updated Growl to the latest version Fixed a bug which would cause excessive resources usage, in certain specific situations. Fixed a bug which could cause Changes Meter to stop checking sites, requiring an app restart to restore…
Let’s take a quick look at some of the latest developments in the Apple II world. Juiced.GS, June 2013 edition is available. This issue features a behind-the-scenes look at the discovery and publication of 8-bit shooting game Zéphyr; an interview with the conference services staff at Rockhurst University, host of KansasFest; reviews of Option8′s RetroConnector keyboard interface device, and of Karateka Classic and Lode Runner Classic for iOS; a history of Apple II software publisher Electronic Arts; and much, much more!…
In the aftermath of WWDC, the Spy notes his reader saw it here first–a modular multi-core MacPro, that is, a closed box with all expandability through external ports. He thought an all-in-one design possible, and didn’t foresee the cylinder, but rightly saw the demise of the tower more than a year ago. Doubled Thunderbolt speed will be nice, and it will be great to get the desktop machine back on the desk from the floor. With that kind of connection,…
Brutal Deluxe Software, the Apple II game software manufacturer, has announced that the recently released Apple II series game Zephyr will now be available in electronic disk image format. The software which was released earlier this year on Floppy Disk is now being sold for a single Euro per copy. According to the Brutal Deluxe Software website, “Now, get one disk image copy made available to you. Purchase it and you will get a double-sided floppy disk image (French and…
The website for the Apple II series based fantasy RPG, Silvern Castle, has moved. Jeff Fink, the owner and author of the game announced the relocation was due to changes with the Google Groups. He also mentioned server speed being a factor in the change. The new website for the Silvern Castle is now at: http://finkjsc.a2hq.com/silverncastle/
After a record setting sale at auction of an Apple-1 computer this past month, another one has appeared on the auction block. With the previous Apple-1 going for more than $671,000 USD, Christies isn’t even messing with a low number for this auction start. Initial bids for the machine will begin at $300,000 USD and according to reports around the web, is expected to raised more than $500,000 USD. The Apple-1 being auctioned as part of a collection entitled “FIRST…
There will be another rendition of the OZ KFest this year. The austrailian compoinent of the Apple II fans has once again decided to have their get together to coincide with the Kansas City based event. According to the press release from Andrew Roughan, one of the event’s organizers, “The Australian retro computing gathering, OzKfest, will be happening in Brisbane, Australia, July 26-28. That’s just 6 weeks away. Steve Kazoullis and I would like you join us for a few…
The collection of Apple ][ cassettes offered by Brutal Deluxe for download has surpassed the 600 tape milestone. The collection, owned and curated by Antoine Vignau has been steadily adding more tapes each month as they have been discovered. The latest updates to the Apple ][ Cassette collection includes items from Powersoft, Inc., Program Design, and Softtape. The tapes, cassette inlays and catalogs are downloadable from the site. For more information, check the Brutal Deluxe Casssette Collection website at: http://www.brutaldeluxe.fr/projects/cassettes/index.html
Finally, The eBook Edition is Available The first Apple II book in print since over a decade, The New Apple II User’s Guide has sold 400 copies since it first went on sale a year ago, 18th June 2012. Since day one, readers have been asking for an ebook edition for their computers, Amazon Kindles, and Apple iDevices. I’m happy to say that it’s available now! After evaluating all the options for delivering an ebook edition, I have decided to…
An early Apple ][ computer posted on EBay, sold for for an unheard of $23,099 US today. The computer with the markings of being serial number 047 of the A2S1 series is a first run case, which does not have the traditional ventilation slots found in later run machines. It also had a power supply hand marked as serial number 049. While most Apple ][ computers sold on the Internet normally go for up to a few hundred dollars, the…
Apple has announced that their Worldwide Developers Conference keynote, scheduled for 10am PDT today will be streamed live on Apple TV as well as the Apple WWDC 2013 App. For several years now, many developers and those in the Apple community have complained about a lack of live streaming of the Apple events. With the record sellout time of the tickets for the 2013 rendition of the WWDC event, Apple was forced to cover those who were unable to get…
Apple has released a minor update to their Mac OS X operating system. Mac OS X 10.8.4 includes a number of bug fixes and security improvements including: Compatibility improvements when connecting to certain enterprise Wi-Fi networks Microsoft Exchange compatibility improvements in Calendar A fix for an issue that prevented FaceTime calls to non-U.S. phone numbers A fix for an issue that may prevent scheduled sleep after using Boot Camp Improved VoiceOver compatibility with text in PDF documents Includes Safari 6.0.5…
Apple Inc. has released an iOS App for the iPhone and iPad which will give all registered Apple developers access to the event. The 2013 edition of the WorldWide Developers Conference in San Francisco sold out in a record 71 seconds this year leaving many developers in the dark so to speak. Apparently, Apple has heard the cries of anguish from those developers who figured they would be able to get a ticket and were not so lucky. The WWDC…
What’s been going on in the Apple II world these past few days? Let’s take a look: 1.) Steven Weyhrich is asking about the Applesoft Firmware card in comp.sys.apple2 for his upcoming Apple II history book. 2.) The Daily Apple blog has been keeping up with daily updates. Currently we are working on Pascal and BASIC programming, and trying to use the Apple IIc as a command-line terminal. 3.) Wade Clarke has started a new web site called Wade-Memoir where he…
When all is said and done with the usual caveat that most is said and little done, people make decisions with their emotions and guts, not their brains. This has been noted here before in connection with the stock market and the purchase of cheap imitation PCs (rather than the real thing–Macs). Last month’s Provincial election here in British Columbia illustrates the same principle in the practice of politics. (Note: in Canada, municipal, Provincial, and Federal elections are independent of…
A note from “Charlie” in the CSA2 Usenet group has announced the arrival of Super Hi-Res Graphics capability for the Carte Blanche card in Apple //e emulation mode. According to the posting, ” I have made a Carte Blanche bitstream that allows an Apple //e to have SHR graphics. Most of the JAT stuff has been removed so it is mostly a VGA video card for the //e. The SHR works pretty much as it does on an Apple IIgs,…
Brutal Deluxe, maintainers of the Apple II Cassette collection have announced a couple of new additions to the library. They include: The Software Factory’s Apple Beneath Manor by Don Worth, with a signed manual from the author Ritam Corporation’s Monty plays monopoly, that is a new publisher. There are currnetly 592 cassettes listed in the collection. More are being added as they come in. If you currently own Apple II cassettes which are not included in the library, you are…
